To train over 7,500 Honda sales associates on the new Honda Fit vehicle, which was aimed at younger Gen-Y consumers, Honda partnered with Campos Creative Works to design a month-long, 21-city training tour. The training included a video profiling real Gen-Y customers and their experiences, workshops on the Fit's features and competitors, and activities to immerse associates in youth culture. The goal was to help associates understand and connect with younger buyers to improve sales and customer satisfaction for the Fit. Initial results showed high certification rates and optimism that customers would report better sales experiences.

1. Road Warriors: Making Honda a Fit for Gen-Y
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Road Warriors: Making Honda a Fit for Gen-Y
September 25, 2006
21 cities plus an entire generation equals one high-energy training campaign for a new
Honda vehicle.
By Jacqueline Durett
advertisement
Wondering how to kick your sales training session into high gear? Then talk to the
experts at Campos Creative Works (CCW) in Santa Monica, Calif., who designed a
training program for the new Honda Fit. CCW recently went on a 21-city tour for more
than a month to train 7,500 Honda sales associates—65 to 70 percent of the U.S.-
based sales force—from all over the country, says Dave Heath, Honda's senior
manager of sales communications. "We believe in the investment of face-to-face,
hands-on training," Heath says.
Why was the training for this vehicle so different? The Fit, unveiled in April, is Honda's
first return to the entry-level vehicle arena since the 1970s, and younger consumers'
attitudes have changed dramatically since then. "It's a new customer that we're
preparing for," Heath says. Greg Williams, CCW's creative director for this project,
adds, "It's really important that these sales consultants walk away with an
understanding of who this buyer is."
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And there's one thing today's young consumers have on their side that their 1970s
counterparts didn't: the Internet. "This younger group of people, because of the
Internet, they've been raised in a much more individualized setting, are more
demanding, are more critical," Williams says. "They want options, and they want
somebody there who's knowledgeable and able to tell them about their options."
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2. Road Warriors: Making Honda a Fit for Gen-Y
As for the marketing strategy, Honda had to reconsider how it interacts not only with Outside the Box: Sticking Up for Capitalism (and Sales)
potential Fit customers, but all potential car buyers. The focus, Williams and Heath say, February 26, 2010
has shifted from being customer driven to customer focused. "It's a subtle change, but
there is a directional change there," Heath adds. Both agree that it's important to
evaluate how much a customer knows about a particular car before determining a
selling strategy.
"You need to let the customer drive that process," Williams says of car buying. "Let the
buyer tell you what they want."
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Heath adds, "We want them to love the car and love the dealer experience."
February 26, 2010
So who are these buyer and just how do you market to them? Well, meet Shay. She's a If Accountants Ran HR…
self-described "slasher." Don't be alarmed—that's just her way of saying she's a February 26, 2010
"receptionist/spoken-word artist/actress/model." That young woman is just one of five
real people—not actors—who were featured in a training video shown during the 21-
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city tour. The subjects speak about not only the Fit, which they saw and were able to
explore prior to the interviews, but also about their previous car buying experiences and
their lives in general. Williams says it was very important that these friends and friends MOST POPULAR | MOST EMAILED
of friends were authentic in presentation. "[We] told them to just wear whatever they * 15 Personal Skills You Need on the Job
were going to wear on a Saturday; we didn't put makeup on them," he says.
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So before sales associates met the Fit, they were introduced to Shay and the other Needs and Expectations
videotaped target buyers. Of the logic behind showing the tape to sales associates * 5 Steps for Creating a Recognition Program
before unveiling the car, Williams says the idea was to say to the sales people, "Hey,
let's introduce you to this buyer first. If you can't get this buyer excited about the car, * Measuring Training Effectiveness
you're not going to be able to sell the car." * Top 10 Meeting Mistakes
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As for those who saw the video, "I particularly think that [the sales associates] enjoyed
listening to the real voice of the customer," Heath says. "They really say a lot of the * 2009 Training Top 125 Winner's List
concepts that we have garnered from a great deal of research, but it's just more * Las Vegas Meeting Planner FAM Tour April 811
powerful when that real person is commenting."
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Associates then were able to see the car and learn about its specifications. However, * How to Select a Sales Kickoff Meeting Theme
that was not presented in a traditional way either, Williams says. "We took every one of
those features and benefits and connected it back to a buyer's wants and needs," he
says, explaining that trainers often referenced people in the video and asked sales
associates how that particular person may benefit from one of the car's functions or
features.
Three breakout workshops were also part of the process. The first went back to the
video interviews as discussion fodder, particularly the experiences of the five target
buyers when it came to car purchasing in the past. This particular workshop affected
older and younger associates differently, Williams says. While the younger ones were
in alignment with their videotaped peers, the older salespeople got a re-education in
selling. Listening to these interviews, Williams says, the older associates were able to
reflect on the "traditional" way they had been selling, employing techniques such as
befriending the customer. "I don't need [dealers] to act like my friend, because they're
not," says one featured on the video. "It was a lot of fun to watch them absorb that,"
Williams says.
Williams also says what was nice about the videotaped interviews was the honesty
captured on tape. "When [you come] into any sales environment, you don't act like
yourself, you're a little bit more reserved, you pull back a little bit. This was a great
chance for [the sales associates] to find out what people are really like when they are
outside of the dealership and what they really thought," Williams says.
The second workshop was a walk around of the vehicle. But the youthful energy
remained in play as sales associates were directed to move things in and out of the Fit,
using its "magic seats," as Williams calls them, explaining that all seats in the
hatchback can be folded out of the way into five different configurations.
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3. Road Warriors: Making Honda a Fit for Gen-Y
The third workshop was about knowing your enemy. Competitors' cars were brought in,
and sales associates drove the Fit and those vehicles, and learned different selling
techniques based on what the competition did and did not have.
Sales associates did not come into these sessions without any prep work, however. A
Web site and some trendy pop music to download got participants immersed in the
youth culture before they were able to see the car in person. "It was to get them into a
mindset and to also let them have a little bit of fun," Williams says. Heath adds that the
sales associates who are hired after these sessions or who were not at the mega-
training sessions are able to be certified through the Web site. Heath's certification
target was 85 percent, and so far 93 percent of sales associates have been through the
training process.
Why was the four-person CCW project team so successful? Having worked with Honda
before, CCW knew what was important to the company: to engage participants in an
interactive experience. The CCW team also was well-versed in marketing to the 18-34
market, and knew that authenticity was most important to the demographic, Williams
says.
"[Campos'] strength is in this interpersonal skills, creative, experiential type of
communications," Heath says, adding CCW's ability to immerse participants in the Gen-
Y world was another plus.
Honda routinely uses surveys to tracks customer reactions to the sales process, and
Heath is optimistic about customers' responses regarding the Fit. "The younger the
buyer, the more critical they are of the sales process," Heath says. "So we're hoping to
see the voice of the customer as having had a better experience at the dealer."
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